MAGIC MUSHROOMS - The history - Teo-nanacatl: Flesh
of the Gods

Teo-nanacatl: Flesh of the Gods

The first clear (written) record comes from the Spanish priest Bernardo de Sahagun who around 1500 gives an account of Aztec `mushroom rituals': "After a night of fasting where only a bit of cacao was taken, they ate, still before sunrise, mushrooms with honey. When the first signs showed (which can be compared to drunkenness with hallucinations) everyone started dancing and singing, while others were weeping. At the end of the ritual everyone gathered to share their visions."
The Aztecs even had a kind of Drug's God, who was called Xochipilli, Prince of Flowers. He was the sacred protector of the `flowery-dream' as the Aztecs called their hallucinatory trance. The mushrooms they used were probably the Psilocybe mexicana or the Psilocybe caerulescens. The Psilocybe (previously Stropharia) cubensis, momentarily one of the more popular mushrooms, was introduced by the Europeans and their cattle in South-America. The Indian regard this variety as inferior to the indigenous Psilocybe's because they grow in dung.

But not only in America, also in Siberia and in other countries magic mushrooms were used. Not always recognizable, it remained part of the `secret' rites; they appeared on special occasions and not everybody was told what was in the `sacred' soup.
The Vikings - as told in Norway - used magic mushrooms (Amanita) before they went ashore and while intoxicated were stronger and wilder then usual. It is not always so easy to recognize the mushroom-influence. Pictures and cave-drawings of small people with mushroom-heads can also be interpreted as space travelers! But the archetypal picture exist in more cultures, we noted that the Turkish Sufis, particularly the dervishes, in their - zikhr - whirling meditation, with their dances and clothing (white hats) very much look like a dancing `Brotherhood of Shrooms'.